San Francisco Giants: 21 players elect minor league free agency

While the MLB free-agent market was set earlier this week, another wave of players hit the open market on Thursday. Which San Francisco Giants could depart?

High-profile MLB players like Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith are not the only ones hitting the open market for the San Francisco Giants this offseason.

While this year’s MLB free-agent class was set earlier this week, Thursday marked the day that eligible minor league players were declared free agents.

Here’s a full list of the potentially departing players, courtesy of Baseball America:

• C Ronnie Freeman
• C Jin-De Jhang
• C Hamlet Marte
• C Francisco Pena
• 1B Brock Stassi
• 2B Levi Michael
• 3B Ryder Jones
• OF Johneshwy Fargas
• OF Anthony Garcia
• OF Courtney Hawkins
• OF Michael Reed
• RHP Jamie Callahan
• RHP Alfred Gutierrez
• RHP Chase Johnson
• RHP Dillon McNamara
• RHP Casey Meisner
• RHP Olbis Parra
• RHP Keyvius Sampson
• RHP William Simpson
• LHP Sam Moll
• LHP Steven Okert

From that group, outfielder Michael Reed is the only player who saw time at the MLB level for the Giants in 2019, as he notably saw his name penciled into the Opening Day lineup.

The 26-year-old went 0-for-8 with six strikeouts before returning to the minors.

In terms of MLB experience, lefty reliever Steve Okert has the largest body of work with a 4.28 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 13 holds over 70 appearances in parts of three minor league seasons.

Catcher Francisco Pena (276 PA, .861 OPS, 34 XBH) and infielder Levi Michael (346 PA, .737 OPS, 25 XBH) both saw significant action at Triple-A Sacramento and will need to be replaced in some capacity.

Speedy outfielder Johneshwy Fargas is also worthy of mention after he swiped 50 bases for Double-A Richmond.

Lefty reliever Sam Moll logged a 2.39 ERA and 9.9 K/9 in 41 appearances between Double-A and Triple-A, and he has past MLB experience with 11 games of action for the Oakland Athletics in 2017.

All in all, there are no major losses in this group for the San Francisco Giants, but they will need to find ways to fill out their minor league depth this winter along with any flashy MLB additions they might make.